The University of Minnesota is holding sessions for students to meet each of the four finalists for the dean of the College of Liberal Arts this week, bringing a search process that began with the announcement of a search committee last November to a close.

The search for a new dean began after the University announced the creation of a search committee last November to fill the position of the previous CLA dean, John Coleman, who left to become the vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign last July. The position has been held by Interim Dean Ann Waltner since July 3, 2023.

The meetings were originally scheduled to occur in Coffman Memorial Union, but the venue was changed to the auditorium in the old Bell Museum on the East Bank following the University’s decision to close buildings around the Northrop Mall in response to the pro-Palestine encampment on Monday.

The first finalist to be announced, who met with students, staff and faculty in the auditorium on Tuesday, is Celia Marshik, an English professor and the current dean of the graduate school and vice provost for graduate education at Stony Brook University, a public research university in New York.

During the meeting, Marshik discussed her vision for the future of CLA, which involves attracting the next generation of students, embracing other disciplines while strengthening disciplines central to the college, offering more transformational learning experiences, investing in CLA faculty and staff, and sharing stories to highlight the college’s impact.

On attracting the next generation of students, Mashik said the college has to find out what students need and take those needs seriously. Just as important, they have to communicate what the liberal arts are.

Mashik said a survey done by the University of Washington recently revealed most recently admitted students did not know what the humanities were.

“What this tells us is that the very students who are coming to us don’t understand what the disciplines are that make up the College of Liberal Arts,” Mashik said. “That’s an opportunity for us to be able to explain what it is we do better.”

Embracing other disciplines and strengthening central disciplines are important for adapting to student needs and allowing them to thrive across many different fields, according to Marshik. Part of this is allowing students to curate their studies and work across all of the different disciplines in CLA and accelerated degree programs that allow students to graduate in four to five years with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.

Providing students with transformational experiences beyond the classroom are important for making a lasting impact on students, according to Mashik. This looks like one-on-one relationships with faculty members, more learning abroad opportunities, undergraduate research and projects for students to do something for their community.

“The students today are passionate, they want to make a difference in the world,” Marshik said. “Giving them those opportunities to have an impact on their communities while they’re students can be profoundly transformational.”

On investing in CLA faculty and staff, Marshik discussed providing professional development opportunities to leadership in the college, building a community around a shared mission and goals by educating faculty and staff on how they can get involved in the college and campus community, and removing friction in the daily lives of faculty and staff. 

Marshik said financial investments in faculty and staff are also important, but didn’t discuss any ideas or plans for such investments during her presentation. According to a report released by the Faculty Consultative Committee last November, faculty compensation at the University ranks in the 15th percentile of the 34 public universities in the Big 10 and the American Association of Universities after adjusting for cost of living.

Marshik’s vision also includes sharing stories to amplify the college’s impact beyond statistics like time to degree and completion rates. People feel the value of a college by hearing or reading about the experiences of students or significant research coming from the faculty, according to Marshik.

“That’s how you change the public perception of what a university does for a city, for a state, for a country,” Marshik said. “It’s by bringing those stories of transformation and telling them again and again and again.”

In her current position as the dean of the graduate school and vice provost for graduate education, a position she has held since last June and previously as the interim from 2022 to 2023, Marshik oversees new curriculum proposals and updates and a budget of more than $8 million that includes university-wide funds for graduate tuition scholarships and tuition on research grants.

Marshik received her B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus in 1992, her Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University in 1999 and was the chair of Stony Brook’s Department of English from 2014 to 2020. According to her profile on Stony Brook’s website, Marshik is a first-generation college graduate and the first in her family to receive an advanced degree.

The second finalist, announced Tuesday, is GerShun Avilez, an English professor and the associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Maryland (UMD), another public land-grant research university.

Avilez has held his position as the associate dean of academic affairs since last July, before which he was the associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion for UMD’s College of Arts and Humanities. He is also the founding director of UMD’s Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through the Humanities, which launched this year as a leadership program based in the humanities and focuses on social justice and equity.

Avilez has previously held academic appointments at Yale and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He received his B.A. in English from Hendrix College, a private liberal arts college in Arkansas, in 2002, his M.A. in English from Temple University, a public university in Pennsylvania, in 2004 and his Ph.D. in English with a graduate certificate in africana studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009.

The next two finalists will be announced the day before they’re scheduled to meet with students, which will be held each day this week from Tuesday to Friday.

According to an email from Executive Vice President and Provost Rachel Croson, the University is allowing students to evaluate each of the candidates in forms that can be completed online after each session.

“Your assessment of the candidates is of great importance to me, so I hope that many of you will be able to arrange your schedules to participate in these visits,” Croson said in the email.

This story will be updated through Friday after the events of the finalists conclude.